The Secret Identity
by EvilDaystar
Summary: Third part of the Secret. Harry returns for his third year at Hogwarts everything appears fairly calm but who is this new student coming into his second year? BTW, I am not in this story. It's not a typical There's a transfer student at Hogwarts story.
1. Prologue

Well, here is the start of my third Book. The Secret Identity.  
Sorry for the ridiculously long wait for this but Real Life doesn;t leave me with a lot of time to write.  
So we pickup right after Harry leaves the gang at Kings Cross.

As usual I own NOTHING!!! Actually, I now own my car, I finally finished paying it off. But I don;t own HP, only the bits you don't recognise from the original books.

You know what they say "A disclaimer a day keeps the lawyers away."

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_**A Happy Headmaster.**_

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, First Class, and Grand Sorcerer; Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards; Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot **Also famous for** defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945 and discovering the twelve uses of dragon blood stood by the a window in his office overlooking the grounds and smiled.

The Headmaster was once again on his perennial quest for a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor seeing how the last one had been sent to Azkhaban for having sex with minors and for mass memory charms performed on the girls and others. The headmaster's eyes twinkled merrily as he thought of a naked Lockhart being dueled to a stand still by a second year student.

The headmaster marveled at the ability young Mr. Weasley had shown in his duel. Admittedly, Lockhart was a rather poor adversary but the DADA curriculum at Hogwarts had suffered greatly over the past fifty years and so Mr. Weasley's performance came as a surprise, and a pleasant one at that.

The Headmaster practically bounced on the balls of his feet. For the first time in many years, he was actually excited about an applicant for the Defence position.

The Headmaster raised his head, as if listening to a silent voice.

"Come in Mr. Lupin, the door is open."

In came a young man dressed in worn but well cared for robes.

"Good day Headmaster. You wished to see me?" asked the man with an easy smile.

"Please, call me Albus, Remus." the Headmaster replied as he indicated for Remus to take a seat.

Remus looked at the Headmaster with a suspicious look in his eyes.

"You want something don't you." Remus stated as he took his seat.

"Lemon Drop?" asked the Headmaster as he avoided the question.

"No thank-you Albus. If this is about my taking the Defence position, you know my feelings about this."

"Yes, you feel that your condition will put the students at risk but I have news for you. A new potion has been developed that would allow you to keep your mind through your transformation, making you as calm as you currently are now." explained the Headmaster as he popped a small, yellow orb in his mouth.

"Yes, the Wolfsbane but it's prohibitively expensive Albus. I don't think the board would …"

"It is not so expensive if brewed on location."

"Snape would brew the potion for me?" Remus asked, both incredulous and hopeful.

"Yes, Severus has agreed to brew the potion and I will ward your chambers as an added layer of safety."

Remus sat there for a moment, thinking. After a few minutes, the Headmaster decided to play his trump card.

"We do have a second choice of course."

Remus was both relieved and disappointed.

"Ah, well then I am sorry for wasting your time." and with this Remus made to stand.

"Well yes, we could always ask Sirius Black to come teach at Hogwarts but …" the Headmaster did not have time to finish.

"Sirius!? Teach!? Here!? With all due respect, are you insane? He'd spend most of his lessons docking points from Slytherin and teaching pranks! That or you'd have to find a new Potions Master by the end of the week."

"Well yes, I see that but Defence was always a good subject for him, not that I believe he had much choice considering his family history and of course he had completed Auror training, all things that fit nicely on a resume." replied the Headmaster as he popped yet another golden orb in his mouth.

"You manipulative old bastard." Remus said with a laugh. "Fine, I'll take the position."

"Good, good. I will have the appropriate paperwork forwarded to your new residence. We will need to know your book list soon and I will forward you the lesson plans for the past seven years."

"But what about the parents? Won't they object to someone like me teaching?"

"Well they would if they knew and by the time the students who would care about such things make the connection, you will have established yourself as a brilliant and fair teacher and we will be able to fight our battle well armed."

The new Defence professor thanked the Headmaster one last time and made his way off school grounds.

"You see Severus, Remus does not hold any ill will towards you. He did not doubt your ability to brew the potion, did not fear that you would poison him and was concerned for your safety and sanity should Sirius be allowed back here to teach." The Headmaster told his potions master who had been hiding in an adjoining room.

"Still Headmaster, he is a werewolf, a dark creature. He should not be allowed near the children." replied Snape darkly.

"Many would and have said the same about you Severus. Remus is still a better candidate than a possessed Quirel or a sexual deviant such as Lockhart and what with the Wolfsbane, what could possibly go wrong?"

"Those may be some famous last words Albus."


	2. Chapter 1  Back at the Dursleys

Well, heres the first chapter, on the same day as the prologue. the prologue was so short I figured I'd throw this up as well.

I have one other chpater readyish and am weorking on the one after that.

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**__**Back at the Dursleys - Two worlds collide.**_

Vernon Dursley stood in front of the barbecue, his loving family sitting at the new patio furniture they had just purchased that same day. He gazed at them lovingly: His beautiful wife, his strong boy.

Everything was perfect. He had received, earlier that morning, a letter informing him that there was no need for him to go pickup his freak of a nephew.

Vernon flipped three massive steaks expertly and slathered them with sauce.

Vernon Dursley was a simple man who enjoyed a simple life and to him, the easiest path for a simple life was to simply not have his freak of a nephew underfoot.

Vernon's thoughts of a Potter-free summer were interrupted by a low, deep rumbling noise.

"Is that thunder dad?" asked Dudley as he looked up to the clear skies.

Petunia, who was at the moment discussing local events with the woman from number two, was the first to locate the source of the rumbling noise.

A large black motorcycle with sidecar rolled up Privet Drive, shattering the calm of the quiet neighborhood, and stopped with a last, loud rumble in front of number four.

Heads popped up over the top of the various fences and hedges around number four as the curious residents chanced a quick look at the loud contraption and its two passengers.

The driver, a tall, thin man, with long black hair, dismounted the diabolical contraption and stretched while a small, thin boy, wearing a black helmet with golden lightning bolts, clambered out of the sidecar.

'Please don't let it be the freak.' Vernon begged the powers that be.

Unfortunately, the gods were deaf on that day and Harry Potter was revealed as the passenger of the sidecar.

The two dark haired bikers were dressed in similar looking, black leather jackets adorned with a fair amount of shiny silver studs.

The boy appeared exhilarated and happy. This of course put Vernon Dursley in an opposite mood as he thundered up the front lawn, puce faced, to let the freaks have a piece of his mind when his wife placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Not out here Vernon. Let's invite them inside." whispered Petunia through a tight smile.

Dudley on the other hand had rushed forward to get a better look at the bike. "Potter? Where did you get this stuff, I thought you were poor, and who's this?"

"That, Dudley is my Godfather, Sirius Black and this is his bike." Harry explained.

Dudley looked up slightly confused.

"If you had a Godfather all along then why did you have to come live with us?" Dudley asked.

Petunia tried to make her way over to her son to stop him from asking that very question as she knew quite well why Sirius had been unable to take care of the boy. Unfortunately for her, Sirius saw her move and quickly answered.

"Well you see … Dudley was it?" Sirius asked. "I was in prison for the past decade for mass murder." Sirius continued, with a cheery smile, not even waiting for the boy to answer his question.

This declaration set off a series of whispers and a few of the less courageous neighbors quickly retreated to the dubious safety of their homes.

"And the reason he was dirt poor and dressed in rags was because your dad didn't see fit to give him any decent clothes or any spending money. You see it was his responsibility to insure that Harry had everything he needed but instead he showered you with gifts."

Vernon was sputtering in rage, Petunia was looking nervously at all the neighbors, Harry was trying very hard not to laugh and Dudley seemed a little embarrassed.

"Can we perhaps take this conversation inside?" asked Petunia, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Petunia! I haven't seen you since Lily and James's wedding." Sirius cried out in apparent joy.

"Harry, don't forget Nehebkau or he might get cross with you." Sirius shot to Harry, in a loud voice, as he ushered the elder Dursleys towards the front door.

Harry grinned and shook his head. His Godfather was enjoying himself far too much.

Harry reached down into the side car and pulled out his serpentine friend. The few neighbors that were left outside quickly dashed back to their homes.

"Wicked!" exclaimed Dudley "Can I touch it?"

"Sure Dudley." Harry replied, stunned that his cousin was not freaked out by the large venomous snake.

"Please don't bite him, it would cause trouble." Harry hissed to Nehebkau as he passed the large reptile over to his cousin.

'Oh yes, your pet would get indigestion.' chimed in Silias inside Harry's head.

Harry and Dudley walked into the house and Harry knew for a fact that Sirius had placed a silencing charm on the house as he and Dudley were assaulted by Vernons screams.

"HE WILL NOT STAY HERE THIS SUMMER!" Vernon cried out.

"Everything ok Sirius?" Harry asked as he poked his head into the door frame.

"Everything's under control. Why don't you head out to your room and get setup. I'll join you after I work things out with the Muggles." Sirius replied non-chalantly.

Sirius was sitting in Vernon's chair, his booted feet crossed on the poof while Vernon loomed over him threateningly. Petunia was simply sitting quietly on the couch.

"Right, I'll be in the attic then."

"Look Dursley, it's just two or three …" Harry heard Sirius explain as he and Dudley made their way upstairs.

"Dad didn't think you were coming back." Dudley explained as they walked up the stairs.

"I almost didn't but by coming back one last time I extend a magical field that keeps me and you lot safe. And it's only two weeks, three tops." Harry explained to his cousin.

They walked up the attic stairs and Harry was surprised to see that Dudley was following him. Harry simply shrugged, took out his shrunken trunk and canceled the spell on it. Dudley gasped as Harry's large trunk suddenly appeared.

"Well thanks for bringing Nehebkau up Dudley." Harry said as he took the snake back from his portly cousin.

"Right, no problem." Dudley replied.

Harry and Dudley just stood there awkwardly for a moment.

"Anything I can help you with Dudley?" Harry asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

"No. Nothing. See you at supper." Dudley replied hesitantly and then made his way down the stairs.

'He gets stranger and stranger every year.' Silias commented.

"Nice setup you have here." Sirius commented some time later as he made his way up the stairs to Harry's room.

"So how did it go?" Harry asked.

"It's all worked out." Sirius replied with a dark look. "If it wasn't for Lily's protection I'd never leave you alone in here."

"It's only for a few weeks and it's not like I'm alone, I have Hedwig and Nehebkau." Harry pointed out.

"Right. Right! Well I laid out the law, told them to treat you right and to bloody well leave you alone. Told them you'd get your own meals and your cleaning." Sirius explained.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Harry asked.

"You own a house elf. You need something, you call his name and he'll go get it for you from the stuff at home. Oh! Right, I need to show you this."

With that Sirius took out a piece of paper and passed it on to Harry. On the piece of paper was written one line.

_The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black is located at 12 Grimmauld Place._

Harry looked at the paper then at Sirius.

"Couldn't you have just told me?" he asked, slightly confused.

"Nope, I'm not the Secret Keeper."

'They placed your new home under Fidelius?' asked Silias in surprise.

"The Fidelius?" Harry asked, mirroring the amulet's surprise. "Who's the Secret Keeper?"

"Remus is. He'll be living with us most of the time." Sirius explained. "Look, are you sure you want to stay here? I mean it's no trouble at all for you to pop over now you know, it'll just mean another set of hands to help me, Remus and your crazy house elf clean."

Harry shifted uncomfortably.

"Alright then, I guess I'll see you in a couple of weeks then."

"I'll see you then, and I'll send Hedwig or Dobby off with some notes." Harry said in what he hoped was an encouraging voice.

Harry carefully climbed into his hammock and thought about his move to Sirius's house. He really didn't know why he felt so awkward about it, Sirius appeared to truly care for him.

"Sometimes, I just wished I wasn't me." Harry whispered to Nehebkau.

Exhausted by the ride back from Kings Cross, Harry Potter fell asleep.

Harry's dreams that night were troubling and fragmented. All he remembered of them were a dark street and feeling squeezed as if he was being swallowed by the Basilisk again.

Harry awoke, to the bright morning light filtering in painfully through the small window in the attic and looked at his watch. It was almost noon, he had slept close to eighteen hours and felt as if he had not gotten a wink of sleep.

Carefully getting out of his hammock, Harry quietly made his way down stairs to make use of the facilities. After quickly relieving his bladder and taking a short shower, Harry made his way to the kitchen.

Vernon was nowhere to be seen but Dudley was sitting at the table waiting for his lunch.

"Sorry I missed breakfast Aunt Petunia, I guess I was a bit worn out." Harry told his Aunt as he peeked into the kitchen.

Petunia sniffed disdainfully. "You didn't miss breakfast. We were told by your Godfather that you would be getting your own meals."

"Right, forgot about that." Harry explained. "Dobby?"

With a pop the excitable house elf appeared in front of Harry.

"Master Harry Potter Sir has called for Dobby?" the elf asked apprehensively.

"Hey Dobby, I hope I didn't take you away from your lunch and I thought we agreed you wouldn't call me master." Harry greeted the small elf, ignoring his aunt's squeak of fear and the elf's strange demeanor.

Dobby's face lit up with joy. "No Harry Potter sir, Dobby was not having his lunch. Dobby was preparing the great, honorable and kind, masters rooms."

"Oh good, I kind of fell asleep last night and didn't have supper or breakfast do you mind throwing together a fair sized lunch for me?"

Dobby nodded excitedly and popped away with a snap of his fingers.

"What was that?" Dudley asked in surprise.

"A house elf?" Petunia asked incredulously.

"How do you know what a house elf is?" Harry asked surprised.

"Your mother said the Potters had a few about. She was rather angry about it actually …" Petunia suddenly clamped her mouth shut, realizing that she was openly discussing the wizarding world.

"Don't ask questions!" she shot back, as if conditioned to do so.

"What is it? A servant or something?" Dudley asked, seeming a little envious.

Before Harry could even answer, Dobby had reappeared, much to the consternation of Aunt Petunia and the amusement of Dudley.

"Dobby is being a bad house elf!" cried out the small creature. "Dobby is not waiting for master's permission to leave or asking master if he is preferring tea, coffee or juice before his meal."

Harry noticed the elf look about for something to do himself bodily harm with.

"No need to punish yourself over that Dobby, you were just excited to get to work and I'd like some pumpkin juice this morning."

"Mas … Harry Potter sir is too good to Dobby." Dobby replied, lowering his head in shame. "If Dobby may be excused?"

"Go on Dobby and you don't always need to ask. If you think we're done talking you can go if we're not I'll let you know."

Dobby snapped his fingers and disappeared.

"He's your butler?" Dudley asked incredulously.

"I guess." Harry replied with a sigh as he sat down at the table.

"Mum! I want a butler!"

Dobby re-appeared again, delivering an ornate glass pitcher filled with pumpkin juice and a few glasses and popped away again before anyone could say anything.

"You will tell that infernal creature to stop doing that this instant or we are sending you back to your godfather!" cried out Petunia as she picked up the plastic bowl she had dropped for the third time.

"But you already agreed to have him here, that's how I'm going to get my food and get my clothes cleaned." Harry explained as he poured himself some pumpkin juice.

Harry hated to admit it but this was starting to be fun. He hadn't thought about forcing some magic into his relative's lives, it seemed like a good punishment for the years of trying to squash the magic out of him.

Petunia simply turned about and went back to the kitchen to make Dudley's lunch. Harry noticed Dudley looking curiously at his pitcher of juice.

"Want a glass Duders?" Harry asked, feeling generous with his whale of a cousin.

"Sure, I mean it's not going to turn me into anything right?" Harry shook his head in reply as he downed a full glass of the juice.

"Nope." He replied as he poured his cousin a glass.

Lunch continued along that same vein as Dudley sampled some of Harry's lunch while ignoring his grilled cheese sandwich. Harry had forgotten how all house elves seemed to think that all humans ate like … something that ate a lot … like a Weasley, and so there was plenty for the both of them. Petunia did not appear happy about this at all.

Once lunch was over, Dobby returned and cleaned up with a snap of his fingers.

"Everything was great Dobby, thanks."

Dobby beamed at Harry and disappeared with a pop.

Harry made his way back up to his room in the attic and took out his list of homework. Snape had, fortunately, not returned in time to give out the summer assignments and so Nicholas Flamel had given them a more reasonable essay on the interaction of aquatic based ingredients, Professor McGonagall had requested two feet on inanimate to animate transfigurations, professor Flitwick had requested a small essay on a third year charm of the students choice, Bins had requested an essay on the witch hunts and of course there was no essay for Defense as Harry, Ron and Hermione had had their professor arrested for being a sexual predator.

There wasn't really anything too troublesome so Harry chose the least pleasant of his essays: potions.

Harry set his mind to recovering information he had learned from Silias, set Quill to parchment and his hand began writing, as if of its own volition.

"Oy! Potter!"

Harry bolted up in his chair. He had apparently fallen asleep while writing and had not heard his cousin walk up the stairs to the attic.

"Who? What?" Harry asked blearily as he grabbed for one of his wands.

"It's just me." explained Dudley as he sat on Harry's trunk.

"Oh! Hey Dudley, what can I do for you?" Harry asked, adjusting his glasses.

"Nothing much, I was just wondering what you were doing up here."

Harry took a good look at his cousin.

"Just homework. Why aren't you out with Pierce Polkis and your other friends?"

Dudley looked about, a little embarrassed. "They aren't my friends; I don't think they ever were. When I got to Smeltings, I figured it'd be like at our old school so I started bullying people smaller than me. Most of my old gang wasn't there, just Pierce and me and well an upper year saw me bullying this girl and gave me a pounding. I held my own for a bit but Pierce just ran. The guy told me that if he caught me bullying others again I wouldn't walk for a few weeks so I stopped and all of a sudden, Pierce wasn't hanging around me anymore. I joined the boxing club at Smeltings but not to learn how to beat up people, it's just fighting's the only thing I was ever good at so it's not like I have anything else to do."

"So you're not a bully anymore?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Not fun being on the receiving end. That's when I realized I didn't really have any friends, just people who hung around me 'cause I was the biggest." Dudley answered glumly.

"I know what you mean." Harry replied.

"What do you mean, you're puny!"

"Yeah but I'm famous. There was this one idiot who wanted to be my friend only because of my stupid scar. We'd met before at a store and he hadn't recognized me and he started saying stuff that pissed me off so I told him to go away. Then there's this guy in my house at school, he keeps asking me for autographs and pictures and stuff just because the guy who killed my parents didn't manage to kill me. He's not excited about seeing Harry, he's excited about meeting The-Boy-Who-Lived." Harry explained.

"The-Boy-Who-Lived?" Dudley snorted. "That's what they call you? What do they call the tosser who tried to kill you?"

"They call him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named', 'You-Know-Who' or 'The Dark Lord'. They're afraid of saying his name and the funniest thing is it's not even his real name. He calls himself Lord Voldemort but his real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"Bunch of wimps. You can't get hurt for saying someone's name." Dudley shot back.

"Probably not." Harry agreed "But with magic, you never know. I say his name and my Headmaster does as well. So does my Godfather."

"So you're famous?" Dudley asked.

Harry simply took a book off his desk; 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts', thumbed to a certain chapter and handed it to Dudley.

While Dudley read the short chapter concerning his cousin and Voldemort, Harry took a look at his potions essay. To his surprise, the essay was finished, the last couple of lines were barely legible and the last few words made no sense whatsoever, something about Gringotts and pepper up, but overall the essay was complete. Harry didn't really remember writing even half of the essay but he was still very tired from his horrible night of sleep.

"Bugger!" exclaimed Dudley as he closed the book. "You're a bloody hero!"

"I was one Dudley, it's my mum that cast a spell on me as she died that protected me from Voldemort, that's why I came back this year. As long as I can call home the place where my mother's blood dwells, the protection renews itself but I'm going to move to Sirius's place in a few weeks so the charm will start to weaken."

"Ok, so you were one when that guy tried to off you but what about your possessed Defence professor in your first year and that pervert a few months ago?"

"WHAT?" Harry asked as he grabbed his copy of 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts' from Dudley's hands.

Harry scanned the book and found to his utter amazement that his exploits of the last two years, or at least his publicly known exploits, were chronicled in the tome.

"How's this possible, I got this before I started school!?"

"Magic?" Dudley threw in helpfully.

Harry scanned the cover of the book and there, in the corner of the back, inside of the cover was a small note.

'Self Updating Edition.'

"Bloody Hell!" Harry exclaimed, throwing the book on his desk in disgust.

"Did you actually do all those things?" Dudley asked with a bit of awe. "Can you really talk to snakes like Whats-his-name?"

Harry groaned and simply nodded.

"That's cool. I guess I was lucky all these years that you didn't get angry at me. I mean, if you can take on grown adults."

"Can't I have any privacy whatsoever?" Harry asked while glaring at the offending book.

Supper that evening was rather eventful.

Vernon stared at Harry with an annoyed look on his face but refrained from saying anything. Instead, he took a copy of that morning's paper and hid behind the large pages.

Harry sat down at the dinning room table, no plate or utensils were set for him but Harry knew Dobby would take care of that for him.

"Dobby?" with a pop, Dobby appeared.

Petunia had jumped in her chair Dudley looked on with amusement while Vernon ripped his newspaper in half in fright.

"Harry Potter sir has called for Dobby?"

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT!?"

"That's a house elf dad, its Harry's butler."

Harry turned to Dudley, surprised his cousin would speak.

"BOY! CUPB … ROOM … ATTIC ... NOW" Vernon screamed as he stood from his chair.

Harry backed away from the table to make his way to the attic but was surprised to see that Dobby was not following him.

"Yous is not to harm the great Harry Potter sir!" the elf said in a voice filled with cold steel.

"It's alright Dobby, he's not worth it." Harry explained with a shrug.

"I will not be threatened and humiliated in my own home!" thundered Vernon as he grabbed the pepper grinder as a makeshift club.

The next thing Harry knew there was a loud crackling sound followed by a louder pop and Vernon was sliding along the floor, out of the dinning room and into the living room. Dobby stood there between him and the rest of the Dursleys, hands extended before him.

"Bloody Hell Dobby, what did you do?" Harry asked incredulously.

'House elves have great magic that they almost never use on their own. Should a house elf rebellion ever happen the wizarding world would be hard pressed to survive it.' Silias informed Harry, sounding somewhat impressed with the eccentric elf.

"Dobby is protecting his master. No one will harm master while I is being about."

"OUT! Just get out of here and tell your godfather to forget the stupid money! I want you out of here in the next ten minutes." cried out Petunia as she kneeled by her husband's prone form.

Harry made his way up to the attic, Dobby in tow, and quickly packed his belongings. His visit with the Dursleys had lasted all of one day.

"I guess that's it for my mum's protection." Harry told Dobby as the elf packed Harry's books away.

"Dobby is being sorry for causing trouble for his master. Dobby will be finding other work." Dobby explained as he wiped tears away from his huge, protuberant eyes.

"What are you on about Dobby?"

"Dobby is attacking master's family. Dobby is a bad, bad elf!" Dobby exclaimed with a wail as he dropped the book he was putting away and fell to his knees.

Harry put a comforting arm around the thin elf.

"It's alright Dobby. They never were my family, they're just my relatives. The Weasley's are more a family to me than the Dursleys." Harry explained. "Now come on before Aunt Petunia goes insane and attacks us with a frying pan or something."

Dobby and Harry made their way down stairs. Harry was surprised to find Petunia standing there, holding not a frying pan but a large revolver in her small hands. Dudley was behind her looking rather nervous.

"Out! Out! And if you ever cross our doorstep again I'll do what I should have done all those years ago and I'll end you." Petunia spat at Harry, the gun shaking in her hands.

Harry simply looked at her, a cold feeling passing through him, and walked out of privet drive for the last time.


	3. Chapter 2 The Grimm Aulde Place

**The Grimm Aulde Place **

"Dobby will be taking masters things back to masters home and will warn Harry Potter's Dogfather that there is being trouble." Dobby explained.

"Thanks Dobby."

With a snap, Dobby disappeared, along with Harry's trunk. Harry sat on the curb and waited for his godfather to arrive, idly rolling his phoenix wand in his fingers.

"Nothing ever goes right in my life now does it?" Harry asked Nehebkau.

"I am rather new at life myself, but it seems to me that life has its ups and downs. Look at me, I come into existence with an urge to attack you then that pervert attacks me, next thing I know I'm tossed into the air, next you ask me not to attack that boy and you bring me to your giant friend. I spend a bit of time in a warm comfy place and next thing I know you are my new master; ups and downs." Nehebkau replied.

Harry jumped and whirled about as he heard a crack coming from the back of the Dursley's home.

"It's just me pup." said Sirius as he made his way around the corner of the house.

"I guess things didn't go as well as planned?" Sirirus asked, seeing Harry sitting on the curb.

"You know me, trouble keeps finding me." Harry replied, putting his wand away.

"Well, all is not lost! Now we have three more weeks together. Of course the house isn't one hundred percent ready but it's livable."

"How are we getting there? The Triumph or the Knight Bus?"

"Side-along apparition. Just stand next to me and grab my hand. Now I haven't done this in a while so hopefully I won't splinch us." Sirius commented absentmindedly as he took Harry by the hand and elbow.

"What's splinchinIII…"

Harry's question was interrupted by the sudden feeling of being squeezed very tightly. The world dissolved about him and, as the feeling passed, Harry found himself suddenly standing in a different neighborhood.

"…IIIIIIIING!?"

"You alright there pup?" Sirius asked with a worried look on his face.

"Now I know what it feels like to be toothpaste being squeezed out of the tube." Harry replied, shaking the unnerving feeling off.

"It gets easier with time." Sirius explained, trying hard not to laugh.

"Well at least I'm still standing. It's already better than Floo."

"Can you check real quick to see if you have all your bits still attached?" Sirius asked.

'Splinching is when apparition goes horribly wrong and the wizard ends up leaving bits and pieces of themselves behind.' Silias explained as Harry did a quick check to see if anything was missing.

"Uhm … all there I think." Harry replied, slightly embarrassed.

"Well, welcome to 'The Grimm Auld Place'." Sirius said as he pointed to the dividing line between numbers eleven and thirteen.

"Uhm! Where is it?" Harry asked.

"Just think back to the paper I showed you yesterday."

Harry thought back to the piece of paper and it appeared in his minds eye.

As he remembered the contents of the paper, the houses before him moved away from their dividing line and a house squeezed itself into existence in the space they left. The house was dirty and worn, the paint peeling from the walls.

"Wow! That was neat."

'Simply amazing.' Sillias exclaimed in Harry's mind. 'But I wonder if the spell literally changes reality or simply everyone's perception of what is real. In the end the distinction is merely academic since reality is simply what we can perceive and so by changing our perception, we change reality itself.'

Harry followed Sirius up the worn stone steps.

"Honey! I'm home and I brought home a puppy! Can we keep him?" Sirius cried out into the dark house as he entered ahead of Harry.

"You Blood traitor! That a child of mine would consort with a half-beast and mudbloods. I'm simply glad your father never had a portrait made or it would die of shame."

"Shut the hell up you old hag. This is my house and soon as I can figure out how, I'm going to take you off the wall and use you for kindling!" Sirius cut in.

Harry, wondering why he had a crazy woman chained to the wall of his entrance hall, stepped inside the house to find Sirius screaming at the portrait of what Harry guessed was Sirius's mother.

"Hey pup. This 'charming' lady here is my mother. Don't get to cozy with her cause the moment I can figure out how to get her off the wall she's going into the fireplace."

_"I gave you __life,__ I gave you a home, food, an education…"_

"Why would you want to do that Sirius. She is your mother after all, even if you don't agree on things." Harry asked as he ignored the woman's ramblings.

_"…You're not half the wizard your brother was, bless his soul. Died for the Dark Lord like a good Black…"_

"You're delusional you old hag, he had second thoughts, tried to leave and they killed him." Sirius shouted back at the portrait.

"Think how Petunia treated you all these years. It wasn't as bad but I got the same type of mental and verbal abuse you got. Your grandparents were more my parents than her and dad." Sirius replied darkly as he attempted to cover the painting with red drapes.

"Why don't you just take her off the wall and store her somewhere. Once you burn her she's gone for ever you know." Harry continued quietly.

_"… __sorted__ into Gryffindor. __Shamed the whole family.__ And where did it lead you? Azkhaban, that's where your friendship with the blood traitors and the mudbloods lead __you__."_

"Oh shut up already you old hag. Look what joining Voldemort's side did for Trixie, she's still in Azkhabhan with her husband and brother in law." Sirius threw back at his mother. "I might do that in the end pup. Anyways, it's not like she's going anywhere anytime soon." Sirius continued as if his outburst with his mother hadn't happened.

"Why not?"

"She managed to put a permanent sticking charm and I haven't found the counter for it yet."

_"Of course I did, this is the Noble House of Black and it requires a PROPER Black to maintain its nobility and grace."_

"Why not take the wall apart?" Harry suggested.

"Remus thought of that but we checked and it's a load bearing wall. If we don't do it right, we risk collapsing the whole house." Sirius finished, finally managing to cover the painting over.

"Now where in the blazes is Remus? Well, it doesn't matter; I'll give you a tour of the place."

"Well, this is the entrance hall." explained Sirius. "The stairs lead up to the second floor where the library and bedrooms are. There's also a third floor with more bedrooms and then the attic."

Harry examined the entrance hall. It had obviously belonged to a dark family. The whole decor could have been used as a set for a horror flick. The whole area was done up in blacks and greens, appropriate for a family traditionally in Slytherin.

"Don't worry too much about the décor. We're just cleaning for now and then when that's done we'll start tearing stuff apart." Sirius explained, seeing Harry uncertain look.

"And through this door, we have the living room."

The décor in the living room followed that of the entrance hall. It appeared clean but the color scheme seemed to suck the light out of the room.

"Now down here we have a loo." Sirius pointed out as the passed a door in the Hallway.

"Here is where we spend quite a bit of our time: The Kitchen!"

The Kitchen seemed to have received the most work out of all the rooms Harry had seen to date. It was brightly lit and painted.

"Moony likes to cook so we spent quite a bit of time on this part. Dobby's just been great for this stuff."

"Blood traitor master is not asking Kreacher for help with destroying Mistresses home, no stupid master wouldn't ask Kreacher for help but brings a disgraced elf instead." came a soft mumbling voice form behind Harry.

Harry twirled around in surprise, not having seen anyone in the kitchen as he entered. Standing there was the oldest and dirtiest looking elf Harry had ever seen in his life.

"Kreacher." Sirius said, with disgust, in lieu of introductions.

"Kreacher is surprised that filthy master remembers Kreacher's name seeing how master has a new, disgraced elf." the Elf mumbled.

Harry was fairly certain that the elf thought it was thinking these things in its head.

"Kreacher. This is my Godson Harry. You are to give him as much … scratch that … more respect than you do me … not that that would be too hard." Sirius informed the elf.

Kreacher simply nodded and made his way to a cupboard by the stove and climbed in.

"That blasted elf. Thinks that because my mother hated me and that she has a portrait he can treat me like dirt. I swear I'll wring his neck one of these days." Sirius mumbled to himself. "That's the Black house elf. Don't eat anything he gives you. He's been forbidden from going into our rooms. I don't really trust the bugger."

"Why don't you set him free then?" Harry asked.

"Security risk. I'd feed him to Moony next full moon if it wasn't that Remus would hate my guts for it. The damned elf knows too much about this place to be set free, he'd go running to Malfoy and I don't particularly want Malfoy to get his hands on the dratted elf."

"Why would he go to Malfoy?"

"Narcisa, Draco's mother, was a Black by birth. Draco is a nephew of mine I guess."

Harry was surprised to learn that bit of information.

"It's not like Kreacher could tell anyone where we are." Harry explained.

"He could tell them about our habits, places we like to go, any long-term plans he might have overheard. It's too much of a risk."

"And the fact that the elf was freed would be a good indication of where we are hiding," Remus had just entered the kitchen. "even if they couldn't remember anything about the location of the house."

"Hello Remus." Harry greeted the werewolf.

"Hello cub. Not that I'm not glad to see you or anything but what are you doing here? It's a bit earlier than expected."

"Vernon and Petunia weren't happy with Dobby popping in all the time. We had a … disagreement and Petunia chucked me out." Harry explained.

"Well I'm glad to see you." Remus said as he ruffled Harry's unkempt hair. "Have you gone over the safety rules yet Sirius?"

"Nope, we just got to the kitchen now." Sirius explained. "Well I did cover Kreacher and that's certainly a security issue."

"Well Harry, any rooms marked with a red dot on the door are still unsafe. The house was abandoned for over a decade so there's a lot of magical pests and creatures about. We sealed the rooms we haven't been able to get to. Normally I wouldn't be too worried but you haven't exactly had a good education in defense so you wouldn't know how to defeat a Boggart for example or …"

'Boggart: A shape shifter that reads its opponents mind to locate its greatest fear. It then changes into that fear rendering its victim incapable of defense. The way to defeat a Boggart is to remember that the fear is not real then picture that fear as something comical and finally incant the spell RIDICULUS with a flick of the wand. A good laugh at the end of the spells will end the Boggart permanently.' Silias instructed as Remus continued talking.

"… xie stings are poisonous but we keep a Bezoar in the kitchen for when Sirius tries to cook."

Harry hoped he hadn't missed anything important while Silias explained about Boggarts.

"Oy!" Sirius exclaimed in indignation.

"But still it would be best if you stayed out of those rooms unless one of us or Dobby accompanies you." Remus finished, ignoring Sirius.

"Yeah and well, there's also the full moon." Sirius added. "The basement is off limits on the full moon. Remus doesn't have the Wolfsbane Potion yet so he won't be safe to be around during the full moon."

'Wolfbane? A safe werewolf during the full moon?' Silias asked with interest.

"What's the Wolfsbane Potion?" Harry asked.

"A potion that was recently developed to help a werewolf keep his mind during the transformation. I should be able to get some in a few months." Remus answered.

"I'll be joining Remus on those nights as Padfoot. Animals are safe around Werewolves and it keeps him distracted so he doesn't hurt himself too much. Maybe one day we'll be able to teach you how to become an Animagus like your dad and me and we'll both be able to go with Remus on those nights."

"I'd like that." Harry replied with a shy smile.

They sat about the table until Harry's stomach reminded him that he had not had supper yet.

"How about Sirius shows you your room and I'll make us some supper." Remus said with a smirk.

"Good idea that." Sirius replied as he leaped up from his seat.

As they made their way up the stairs, Sirius shot a look back at the door to the kitchen and lowered his head to Harry's ear.

"Right, last little thing. I'm not sure old Remus 'Stickler for the rules' Lupin would approve of me telling you this …"

"Remus was a Maurauder, Sirius. That's not exactly being a 'Stickler for the Rules'." Harry pointed out.

" … but what with the trouble you get into," Sirius continued, ignoring Harry's comment. "I feel it's my Godfatherly duty to tell you that magic performed here won't be detected so if you want to practice some defense, prank Remus, charms, prank Remus, or transfiguration you won't get in trouble with the ministry ... even if you prank Remus." Sirius explained with a mischievous smile.

Harry attempted to look surprised but apparently he wasn't such a great actor.

"You already knew!?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Yeah, there's sensors only in front of Muggleborn or Muggleraised kids houses." Harry admitted. "The twins, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and me, we practiced magic all last summer at the Weasley's." Harry explained.

Instead of being angry or annoyed, Sirius snickered.

"You've got a bit of the Marauder in you eh?" Sirius whispered, while giving Harry a soft pat on the shoulder. "So what spells did you guys practice?"

Harry told Sirius about the text changing spell and a few of the other spells they had gone over. Sirius seemed duly impressed.

"Well, here's your room. I'd like to take the credit for it but your house elf did almost all of it."

Harry opened the door to find the most decadent room he had ever seen. In the center of the room was a large Queen sized, canopied bed all done up in Gryffindor colors. The walls were, thankfully, in a neutral off-white. In the corner was a beautiful hardwood desk. The room had a huge walk in closet that was bigger than Dudley's bedroom at Privet Drive and Harry had a small bathroom with a bath tub.

Dobby was flitting about, putting away Harry's clothes and books in various places.

"This is beautiful Dobby!" Harry exclaimed.

Dobby simply grinned from ear to ear and finished unpacking his master's possessions.

"Well, I'll let you get acquainted with your room while I go and make sure that Moony isn't burning the house down." And with that Sirius had bounced out the door and was thumping down the stairs, causing Mrs. Black to begin screeching at him.

Harry looked about and noticed that many of his things had been moved from the hub.

"Dobby, not that I mind since you already know about the Hub, but why did you move my things out of there?" Harry asked carefully, ready to jump on the small elf at the first sign of his intent to commit self flagellation.

"Dobby is wanting everything to be perfect for Harry Potter sir, Dobby is wanting for Harry Potter sir to feel that this is his home. Dobby is keeping his Master's secrets but Dobby is hoping that Harry Potter sir is feeling at home here." Dobby explained nervously.

"That's fine Dobby. Thanks for all your hard work." Harry replied to the eccentric elf, hoping to alleviate the elf's obvious guilt.

Harry paced about his new room for a bit. It was rather nice really; the color scheme was not over the top, Harry liked being in Gryffindor but he also liked other colors than red and gold, but the egg-shell white was nice and neutral. The bed was ridiculously large, Harry couldn't help but imagine the entire Weasley family along with Remus and Sirius all bundled in there for the night.

Harry's stomach complained loudly and so Harry made his way back downstairs to see if supper was ready.

"… not too happy about being here." Harry heard Sirius say as he approached the kitchen door.

"You have to give him some time Padfoot. He was just told by the only family he'd known for most of his life that he wasn't wanted." Remus replied.

"I don't know Remus, it's like he doesn't want to be here."

"You're repeating yourself now Sirius and really Harry doesn't know us much yet. Give it some time."

"I know Remus, it's just he just looks so much like James, and his eyes, it's like Lilly's there looking at me through them, it's a little hard you know."

"Ok, who are you and what have you done with Sirius?" laughed Remus.

"You can blame those damned doctors …"

Harry simply made his way back up to his bedroom, not wanting to hear anymore. Dobby was nowhere to be seen having apparently finished his task, and lay down in bed.

"Up and at 'em pup!" came a loud booming voice as a door came crashing open.

Harry quickly rolled out of bed and had a wand pointed at his assailant before his eyes were even open.

"Ok! Lesson one, don't wake up Harry Potter abruptly." Sirius said slowly backing away.

"Bloody Hell Sirius! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Harry replied, placing his Phoenix Feather wand back on his nightstand.

"Sorry pup, I just assumed you'd be as hard to wake up as your dad." Sirius replied looking a little amused. "You were about to curse me with your eyes closed?"

"Not like it would've made a difference without my glasses." Harry replied grumpily, placing the aforementioned eye wear on his nose.

"Well, get dressed and come down for breakfast. We let you skip dinner last night but I've been warned by Molly that if you're not as plump as a pig by the time you go spend a few days at The Burrow she'll skin me alive and those Prewitt's are a mean lot. Molly's two brothers were dead scary in a fight, they took out a dozen death eaters before the bastards got them."

"I'll be right there Sirius." Harry replied, crawling back in bed. He felt as if he hadn't slept a wink and had been skipping rope all night.

"Alright, I'll give you another twenty minutes but after that I'm sending Remus in." Sirius replied as he walked out of the room.

Harry awoke some time later feeling a bit more rested and needing desperately to pee. The reason for this was, Harry discovered a few moments later, due to the fact that Dobby was drawing him a bath.

"Uhm … hello Dobby. Not to be rude but I need to use the loo so if you could." Harry made shooing motions with his hands while jumping from foot to foot.

Dobby quickly scampered out of the bathroom and closed the door.

Harry quickly set about his business. Casting the tub a quick look, Harry was glad to see it was not about to overflow.

"Harry Potter Sir, should be taking a bath and then joining his Dogfather and his Moony for lunch." Dobby said from beyond the closed door, making Harry jump. Harry had expected the elf to have left the room altogether.

"Right, you can let them know I'll be down right after my bath." Harry instructed the elf, hoping he would leave.

Hearing a soft pop, Harry congratulated himself on a job well done and sank into the warm bath.

Harry thought back to the conversation he had heard the night before. He made Sirius sad because he reminded him of his parents, Petunia hated him, he had lost his mothers final gift to him just so he could get back at the Dursley's.

Harry was slowly being lulled into sleep again by the warm water when a sudden pop by the tub brought him back to wakefulness.

"DOBBY! I'm in the BATH!" Harry cried out in indignation.

Harry immediately regretted his tone as the little elf's face crumpled in despair. Before Harry had time to react, Dobby had smashed his head against the porcelain toilet.

"Bloody hell Dobby, stop that right now!" Harry cried out in fear.

Forgoing modesty, Harry leapt out of the bath to restrain/tend to the crazed elf.

"Dobby has angered the great Harry Potter. Dobby is punishing himself." Dobby explained drunkenly as Harry mopped up a nasty cut that had formed on the elf's forehead.

"Dobby, you've got to stop hurting yourself." Harry explained, on the verge of a breakdown.

"Everything alright in there pup?" came Sirius's concerned voice from beyond the bathroom door.

"Dobby hurt himself. Can you get something to help him?" Harry asked.

The door opened and Sirius took in the scene beyond.

"Episky!" Sirius incanted and the cut sealed itself.

"Basic healing spell. Good for closing up small gashes like that." Sirius explained. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

"I was taking a bath and Dobby popped in." Harry explained.

"Probably wanted to make sure you hadn't drowned or wanted to make sure you had towels or maybe find out what you wanted to wear."

"That's normal? I mean I was in the tub!"

As Harry said this, he realized that he was currently stark naked and quickly wrapped a towel about himself.

"It's what house elves do. I guess he gave you a fright and being the neurotic elf he is decided to punish himself."

"Is he going to be ok?"

"Yeah, he just needs to rest."

"Just put him in my bed. I'll be down in a few minutes."

Harry quickly and quietly got dressed and made his way downstairs, taking great care not to awaken Sirius's Mother's portrait.

"Good of you to join us for lunch pup." Sirius greeted Harry.

"Hey cub." Remus greeted as he set a plate out for Harry.

Harry did not go any further into the kitchen, sitting there was a young woman dressed in the strangest muggle get up he had ever seen. She was dressed in a black t-shirt advertising a popular wizarding band called 'The Weird Sisters', she wore a bracelet with shiny metal studs on the back and a collar to match. The girl also had short spiky hair that started black at the roots and finished with a violent pink finish on the tips.

"Wotcher Harry." the strange girl greeted Harry in a carefree way, spilling a cup of coffee all over the kitchen table.

"Right, you haven't met the menace here yet." Sirius said as he used his wand to clean up the coffee that had spilled all over the front of his pants. "This Harry, is Nympha …"

"Don't you dare say it!" cut in the girl and to Harry's utter amazement, her hair quickly changed shape and color, as if to match her mood. Her hair was now a dark, Weasley red in a semi-spiked, backwards sweep.

"... dora Tonks. My favourite cousin." Sirius continued, ignoring the girl's angry protests.

"If you value your hide, you'll call me Tonks. I don't know why my mother seemed to think that that other name would be a proper name for a girl."

"How … how did you change your hair like that? I didn't see you use your wand" Harry asked in awe.

"I'm a Metamorphmagus." replied Tonks as she used the back of a spoon to look at her reflection. "Lost my focus again." she said as she scrunched her face in concentration and suddenly her hair was back to the pink tipped spikes.

"That's brilliant!" Harry exclaimed as he sat down at the table. "Can you just change your hair?"

'A Metamorph can change their general body type as well. It is a talent one is born with and has many advantages over other forms of disguise such as polyjuice.'

"Nope, I can change my face and the general shape of my body." And to prove her point, she scrunched her face in concentration again and slowly, her nose changed shape to a cute button nose.

"Must be brilliant being able to do that." Harry said with some envy.

"It'll help with my Auror training that's for sure. I think that's the only reason they let me in, didn't exactly have the potions grades to make it otherwise but Metamorphs are so rare, the department would have been stupid to not take me on and Amelia is a smart witch. I bet you'd love to hide that scar of yours wouldn't you? Unfortunately you'll have to do it the hard way like everyone else."

"Is it painful like Polyjuice?" Harry asked and then clamped his hand over his mouth.

"How would you know how painful Polyjuice is?" asked Remus while Sirius tried very hard not to laugh.

Harry mumbled something incomprehensible while staring at the tabletop.

Tonks was laughing along with Sirius while Remus attempted to look stern. Silias was tuting in disapproval in Harry's mind.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"We brewed some in secret last year." Harry said in a clearer voice.

"Let me get this straight, a handful of second year students brewed a NEWTS level potion?"

Harry simply nodded response.

"And you tested it?"

Again, a simple nod.

"And it worked?" Remus asked excitedly.

Harry looked up in surprise. "Uhm, yeah. I turned into Ron for about an hour."

"Amazing! I'd heard how brilliant Hermione was but I'd never had thought …" Remus trailed off. "You do realize that that was very dangerous don't you?"

"We had a bezoar handy and plenty of people to rush me to the hospital wing in case." Harry explained defensively. "And I wouldn't have let any of the others test it."

"Harry," Remus replied with concern. "You're not any more replaceable than they are you know."

Harry simply nodded again while Sirius and Tonks suddenly quieted.

"Right, well, what do we have planned for today?" Tonks asked in an obvious ploy to change the conversation.

"Cleaning." proclaimed Remus, allowing himself to be sidetracked.

"But REMUUUUUUUUS! It's Harry's first day with us, we should do something fun today." Sirius whinnied while Tonks nodded enthusiastically.

"I get so few days off from training; I'd rather spend them enjoying myself instead of cleaning someone else's house." Tonks added.

"Well, what do you have in mind?" Remus asked.

"Quidditch!" Sirius cried out without a moment's hesitation.

"Sirius, there's only four of us." Harry pointed out.

"We could get the Twins and Ron." Sirius countered.

"No Quidditch." Remus interrupted.

"We could go for a picnic." Tonks offered.

"The back garden's a little … scary." Sirius replied, looking apprehensively at the backdoor.

"Scary's an understatement." added Remus. "It's like a Jungle back there."

"We could just go to a Muggle Park." Harry suggested.

A good day was had by all as the three wizards and the witch spent a relaxing day in Hyde Park.

That night, Harry's dreams were stranger than his last. He was standing in front of a mirror looking at his reflection but something was off, his eyes seemed different, they were changing, from their bright green to blue, to grey … to blood red.


	4. Chapter 3  Lessons

_**Lessons**_

Harry awoke from his nightmare feeling exhausted.

Harry took out his wand and with a quick swish; neon blue numbers appeared showing him the time.

"It's only five in the morning." Harry grumbled to himself.

Harry quietly got out of bed and made his way into the Hub. Walking quietly past Nehebkau, the snake was sleeping curled up on Harry's favorite chair, and into the Hubs kitchen, Harry made himself a cup of hot chocolate. He berated himself, as he sat in the Hub's kitchen, for not using the Hub while at the Dursleys home. If he had just ignored his unusual urge to annoy his relatives, his mother's protection would have been extended for another year.

Harry sat there and pondered his recent dreams, the dreams were disquieting and Harry wondered if he should maybe speak to Sirius about them. Harry quickly discounted that option, he was already imposing on his godfather as it was, it would not do to add more trouble, especially since there was no way for him to return to the Dursleys.

Feeling a bit more awake but still rather tired, Harry made his way to his potions lab and brewed himself a batch of pepper up potion. He knew that Remus would insist on some cleaning during the day and, as it was, Harry did not feel up to the challenge of cleaning, potentially dangerous rooms.

"Did I miss anything?" Harry asked Silias, only to realize that the amulet was no longer around his neck.

Harry retraced his steps in the Hub and found nothing. He then made his way out of the Hub and found Silias safely stored away on his bedside table. Harry didn't remember taking the amulet off but he had been very tired when he had gone to bed.

'Ah! There you are, I was wondering when you would retrieve me.' Silias said, the moment Harry placed him over his head.

'Sorry, I guess I took you off before I went to bed.' Harry explained.

With Silias's help, Harry brewed a large batch of potent pepper up before Sirius and Remus awoke. Having taken a dose, Harry felt much more alert and so made his way to the Grimmauld Place kitchen and began breakfast.

It didn't take long for the first occupant of Grimmauld Place to arrive, drawn by the smell of toast and bacon, surprisingly enough, it was Tonks.

"Morning Tonks, I didn't know you were staying here." Harry said as he pulled out another plate for the Metamorph.

Tonks grumbled something incoherent and sat down at the table, her eyes still half closed.

If her rumpled clothes were any indication, Harry could swear she had fallen asleep fully dressed.

Harry served her a cup of coffee and this seemed to wake her up a bit.

"That feels better. I crash here sometimes. The boys and I polished off a bottle of firewhisky last night after you went to bed and well, I was in no shape to apparate home."

"What time do you have to be at the Ministry?" Harry asked as he served her a plate of scrambled eggs.

"Seven AM." Tonks replied and then suddenly stopped chewing. She quickly whipped out her wand and cast the same spell Harry had … approximately two hours prior.

"CRUD, I'll be late!' she cried out as the spell displayed six-fifty am.

Tonks quickly swallowed the rest of her eggs and downed her cup of coffee. Sirius and Remus blearily walked into the kitchen, their wands drawn.

"What's all the yelling about?" asked Remus.

"Scourgify me please, I'm gonna be late for work!" Tonks cut in as she finished the last of her coffee.

Remus cast the spell on her. Tonks squirmed and gave Remus a strange look and the moment the spell was done she popped away.

"I don't know how she can stand having scourgify cast on herself like that." Remus said with a shiver as he sat down at the table.

"Why?" Harry asked, he'd never had the spell cast on him before but had used it on items to clean them.

"The spells a bit too thorough. It's a little invasive really." Sirius explained with a pointed look.

'It cleans … well … everywhere.' Silias clarified.

"Alright, I think I get it now." Harry replied seeing how Sirius was about to add more information.

Once breakfast was consumed each member of the household was appointed a room to clean. Harry had begun helping with cleaning and, after Remus and Sirius had checked it out for some of the nastier magical pests, he had been assigned the Library.

The Black Ancestral Library was large, nothing compared to Hogwarts but large for a privately held collection. Unlike the Library at Hogwarts, the Black Library did not have a restricted section … the whole Black Library resembled the Restricted Section. The shelves held various tomes, some more ominous than other; The Cage of Bones and Everto Porta were a few titles Harry glimpsed as he made his way about the library.

"I wouldn't touch any of the books just yet. I'll let Remus sift through them to see what we can keep out in the open and what we need to store in a vault." Sirius said from behind Harry as he dropped a pail of soapy water and some rags on the floor.

"Wouldn't you destroy this stuff instead? I mean a book called the 'Demon Gate' isn't something I see us needing to read."

'DESTROY A BOOK!?' cried out Silias from Harry's mind. 'Are you daft? What if we had to counter a curse found in one of those books? Destroying that book will not destroy every copy of it in the world or wipe it's contents from everyones minds.'

"I said the same thing but Remus gave me that look that means I said something stupid so I guess we'll just lock up anything he thinks is too dangerous."

'I'm glad to see someone else in this house has some common sense. No knowledge is evil, knowledge is simply a tool. It is our use of knowledge that is either good or evil.'

"I guess that makes sense." Harry replied to both Sirius and Silias.

"Now remember, you don't have to do all this by hand. Here's a book with some useful cleaning spells and try not to get caught by Remus." Sirius whispered as he leaned in close to Harry, handing him a thin book.

"Now here are your cleaning supplies Harry. We'll leave you to it." he continued in a loud voice and then winked at his godson before rushing out of the room.

Harry smiled at his godfather's antics and quickly leafed through the book. He apparently knew most of the spells already and so set to work on the library. Harry slowly made his way to the back of the Library, using his wand to light the old gas lamps on the peeling walls.

"How can so much dust accumulate over only ten years?" Harry whispered to Silias. "I hope there aren't any Dust Bunnies."

The library was much like the rest of Grimmauld Place, all dark colors and snake motifs.

"Talk about house pride." Harry said as he transfigured a snake ornament into a little book.

'Yes, the décor certainly shows a single mindedness that borders on the obsessive compulsive.'

"I mean, I like Gryffindor well enough but it's not like I'll paint all my walls gold and red." Harry added before aiming at a wall and casting a scourgify.

To Harry's dismay, the spell not only wiped the dirt and grime from the wall but also the peeling paint.

"Crud, didn't know that would happen."

Harry continued cleaning around the bookcases and, about an hour later, was almost finished when Remus Lupin entered the room.

Harry quickly hid his wand, while Remus looked at the state of the room, moved his eyes to the bucket of clean water, looked at the walls and floor again, looked at the bucket one more time before settling his gaze on Harry.

"Lessons will start tomorrow morning, now if you could start on the guest bedrooms I'll start sorting these books." Remus said, as he made his way to one of the bookcases with a large box.

"Uhm … lessons?" Harry asked.

"If you're going to perform magic illegally, might as well do it for a good reason. I looked over the curriculum for DADA of the past couple of years and it hasn't been good at all." Remus explained as he levitated an evil looking book into the box he had carried into the room.

"Uhm … right then." Harry said as he made his way out of the room.

Sirius mock berated his godson for his lack of cunning at supper that evening.

The next morning, Harry woke up and made his way to the kitchen only to find Remus already sitting there, sipping tea while reading a book. On the kitchen table was a pile of paper and a muggle number two pencil.

"Uhm, morning Remus, what's all this then?" Harry said as he pointed at the pile of papers.

"Your pop quiz. Answer it as you eat and then we'll move on to the practical test." Remus explained without looking up from his book.

Harry groaned but did as he was told. Between eating his breakfast and Remus's questions, Harry had difficulty concentrating on his 'test' and before he knew it, he was done. Remus quickly took the test and began rating it.

"If you could get the dishes, I'll be done with this in a few minutes."

Harry began pouring warm water into the sink when Remus interrupted him.

"I know you know you can do magic here, you can just magic the dishes clean you know."

Harry stopped the water, quickly scourgified the plates and silverware and poured himself another glass of juice.

A few minutes later, Remus finished rating Harry's pop quiz and looked up at him with interest.

"Well, your knowledge is good. Let's go wake up Padfoot and test out some of your practical." Remus said as he made his way out of the Kitchen.

Harry quickly gulped back his Juice and followed Remus up the stairs.

Twenty minutes later, a rather disheveled and grumpy Sirius Black sat in a chair, in the Formal Dinning Room, sipping a cup of coffee, trying to get his brain into gear.

While Sirius sat there, Remus and Harry had not been idle. Remus had tasked Harry with clearing out an area in the formal dinning room using only magic. Harry had used mainly shrinking charms and had used a few cleaning spells to clear off dirt and grime.

When this was done, Remus had then tested Harry on the use of other charms and transfiguration spells. He would not ask Harry to perform a specific spell but would give him a task to perform to see how he would complete it.

Silias, as in all classes save Potions, remained silent during this 'Practical Examination'.

Harry performed all the tasks set for him while Remus jotted down a few notes.

"Alright Padfoot, you had enough time. We have a lot to do today." Remus said, vanishing Sirius's cup as the ex-convict was about to take another sip.

"Remus, I'd normally still be in bed." Sirius whinnied.

Remus quickly whipped his wand in Sirius's direction and vanished his chair. Suddenly finding himself without support, Sirius landed roughly on the ground.

"Fine, fine … I'd stay on the ground but you'd be likely to kick me."

"Now that Sirius has finished his morning constitutional we can get started. We don't have any Dark Creatures handy …"

"We could use Kreature." Sirius cut in, in a fake attempt at being helpful.

"… but that may change when we get back to cleaning, so for now we'll just do a bit of dueling; nothing too serious, just to get a feel on your reflexes and so on." Remus explained as he sat himself down, ignoring his friends attempt at humor.

"Did he say they were about to duel in the Formal Dinning Room?" asked one of the normally silent portraits, lining the walls of the room to the portrait to it's right.

"Come on Moony, I know I'm rusty and all but I was an Auror. I don't want to hurt Prongslet here by accident. Wouldn't do to have people think I'm abusing him." Sirius replied with some concern.

Harry was both insulted and pleased. On the one hand, his godfather cared for him, on the other his godfather felt he was helpless. Hadn't he destroyed the Dork Lord at the age of one? Hadn't he banished Voldemort's spirit from Quirel? Hadn't he, Hermione and Ron destroyed a Basilisk and the memory of a sixteen year old Voldemort? Hadn't Harry taught the Hub gang Occlumency? Hadn't he, with Hermione's help, taught Ron the fighting skills that had resulted in the capture of Lockhart?

Harry rolled up his sleeves. He was going to show his godfather what he was truly capable of.

"He knows enough to be getting along with Sirius. Just don't start tossing explosive hexes about and we'll be fine."

At the mention of explosion Hexes, the few portraits that had remained on the walls quickly disappeared out of their frames.

Sirius lazily took out his wand and took up a sloppy fighting stance.

"On three. One, two, three!"

Harry quickly fired off a stunner at Sirius who deftly deflected it. Harry then dodged to the side to avoid a tickling charm. Harry then threw off two stunners in quick succession while Sirius simply dodged one and deflected the other. Sirius then threw a color changing hex at Harry. Harry simply allowed the spell to hit him as it would have no real impact on his combat abilities.

"Hah! Got him." Sirius cried out in apparent triumph and began to dance a little victory dance.

Harry took that opportunity to attack Sirius with a body bind that the former Auror was barely able to avoid.

"Oy! No need to be a sore loser." Sirius exclaimed as he rolled away from yet another body bind. "I hit you fair and square."

"I let you hit me with that spell, I recognized it as a hair color changing spell so there was no reason for me to avoid it." Harry explained.

"Oh fine then." Sirius exclaimed and began launching stunners at Harry.

The duel continued on for a few more minutes, becoming more and more intense. Harry could tell that his Godfather was still holding back but not as much as he had initially. Harry began using more powerful and obscure, or at least obscure to a second year student, curses, losing himself in the conflict but no matter what spell Harry used, Sirius apparently knew the counter curse. Harry decided to try confusing his godfather.

"Vis Phasmatis!" a light blue bolt left the tip of Harry's wand and Sirius, apparently not recognizing the spell, scrambled out of the way.

Sirius apparently decided to end the fight then and there and stopped vocalizing his spells and fired them in a rapid stream. Harry managed to dodge or deflect the first three but was hit by the next two.

Harry woke up a moment later with a sore bum, Sirius was looming overhead with a manic grin on his face while, the normally laid back Remus appeared impressed.

"That was bloody well brilliant Prongslet!" Sirius exclaimed pulling Harry to his feet.

"What was so brilliant about it? You were just toying with me." Harry replied sullenly.

"At first I was. Remus showed me the curriculum for DADA for the past two years and I didn't think you'd be able to fight your way out of a wet paper bag, even with the books we sent you I wasn't expecting you to be this good."

"Sirius is right Harry you showed a knowledge equal to that of a fourth or fifth year student or close to that at least." Remus explained in his normal calm voice.

"You also have wicked reflexes but you need to train up a bit, you were starting to tire in the end there and you have to remember; I've finished my Hogwarts education and I was an Auror at one point. You stood up brilliantly for a second year student."

Sirius praise helped lessen the sting of defeat and Harry accepted his Godfather's extended hand.

Harry, at Hedwig's apparent urging, wrote his friends explaining to them how his summer had started out and camouflaged the letter using the charm used on the Maurauders map. This meant that he could not send a letter to Neville but hoped the boy would understand when they met again.

Life at Grimmauld place fell into a pattern after Harry's duel with Sirius. In the morning, they would have breakfast together, followed by a bit of practical Defense then some cleaning. Tonks had not returned to Grimmauld Place yet but Harry was assured that she would pop up at some point during the week.

After only one week of practical defense, Harry had already learned much, proper positioning so as to give you opponent a smaller target, how to stand so as to be able to move quickly out of the way and how to fall without hurting yourself overly much and to offer a quicker way to stand from being knocked prone.

Harry had learned of these tricks and skills but still needed a great deal of practice before being considered proficient in them.

Harry was taught very little in the way of spells since both Sirius and Remus felt Harry was far enough ahead of his year mates but that did not stop Silias from teaching Harry in his special way.

The one area Harry received no tuition in was Potions as both Remus and Sirius were only fair hands at brewing.

"Your mother was fabulous at Potions, on par with Severus." Remus told Harry when he asked about Potions.

"Yeah, it's too bad your dad only got with her partway through our seventh year. Imagine the pranks we could have done if we'd have had her working with us." Sirius replied with a dreamy look in his eyes.

"What else was she good at?" Harry asked, not having heard much about his mother.

"She was just as good at charms as she was at potions. She also had very good grades in Arithmancy and Ancient runes."

"Yeah, Remus here was the only one in those classes with her from our group. For me it was Defense and Transfiguration, your dad was pretty good at Defense but was better at Charms and Transfiguration."

"Well, enough talk about training for today. I declare today the Grimm Auld Place's annual 'no training day'!" Sirius exclaimed, rising to his feet, one arm raised imperiously.

"And what do you plan on doing all day then oh Master of the Grimm Auld Place?" Remus asked.

"Shopping! We're off to Diagon Alley."


	5. Chapter 4 The Theft

**Chapter 4 : The theft.**

Harry, Remus and Sirius made their way to the Leaky Cauldron by way of the Floo Network, Harry tumbling out of the fireplace last.

"There HAS to be a way to not fall flat on your face when getting out of the fireplace!" Harry exclaimed as he climbed to his feet.

'There is no momentum to the movement perceived while traveling through the Floo network and so there is no need for you to counter that perceived momentum when you exit. Simply stand still or, take a normal step out.' Silias explained.

Harry groaned as he dusted himself off but was unable to voice his displeasure with Silias's decision to wait so long to tell him this little fact.

The lunchtime patrons of the Cauldron all had a quick laugh at Harry's exit, as did Remus and Sirius.

"Just stop throwing yourself out of the fireplace when you get to the end and you'll be fine." Sirius explained as he brushed sooth out of his godson's hair.

"Ok, so now where do we go?" Harry asked, ignoring the chuckles coming from the surrounding witches and wizards.

"Jangles and Japes!" Sirius exclaimed like an over excited five year old.

"How about we stop over at Gringott's first to get some coins and then we'll head to Jangle and Japes." Remus countered.

And so the trio made their way out the back door of the Leaky Cauldron and into the alleyway leading to Diagon Alley. The portal opened on its own as a family made their way back to the Cauldron from the Alley.

They made their way through the busy 'start of summer', lunch crowd towards the Gringotts. Happy families were shopping or eating ice cream at Florean Fortescu's. One small girl came out of Magical Menagerie carrying the strangest exotic bird Harry had ever seen in his life.

Arriving at Gringotts, Harry greeted the guard in Gobledygook and the guard simply nodded back in response.

"Ok, so I'll just nip down to my vaults to grab a bag full of coins and then we clean out Jangle's and Japes!" Sirius declared as they made their way to a free goblin.

"I also need to get to my vault." replied Remus.

"Same with me." Harry agreed.

"Nonsense, you guys don't need money, it's my treat."

Harry gave Remus a quick look and was glad to see that the werewolf seemed as uncomfortable with this proposition as he did.

"Fine! Can't give this stuff away … bunch of bloody independent fools …" Sirius grumbled as they finally arrived at a Goblin.

Their first stop was Remus's vault, close to the surface. This section of the Vaults was very different than the sections further down. Instead of large doors, the walls were covered with small little door about the size of a trunk. Remus made his way to one of these doors and inserted his key in the lock. Seeing the contents of the rather small vault, Harry felt rather poorly about the massive amounts of coins in his own vault. Remus, having filled up a small pouch with a modest amount of coins, rejoined the others in the mine cart and they made their way deep down into the bowels of the Bank.

The Blacks, being an old, pureblood family, had vaults deep within the banks system of caves. The doors to the vault were dark and ominous looking. Instead of handing his key to the goblin in charge, Sirius simply approached the vault, laid a hand on the door and the door swung open.

The vault was gigantic, making even Harry's vault appear small in comparison and was filled with large piles of Galleons, Knuts and Sickles.

Sirius filled up a large bag and they made their way to Harry's vault. Harry passed the key to the goblin and stood dumfounded at what was revealed. Instead of the mounds of coins he had had when last he had come to has vaults, only small piles were left.

Harry stood there blinking his eyes, in surprise.

"Is there a problem Mr. Potter?" asked the goblin from the entrance.

"Uhm … well … yeah. Where's all my money?" Harry asked, waving at the small piles of coins, not looking away from his vault.

"Well, let us see here." said the goblin as he made his way inside the vault.

"Well, it would appear that you came here a few days ago and made a rather substantial withdrawal. It would appear that your account has currently reached it threshold and you are no longer allowed to with draw funds so that you have enough money to finish your education."

Harry stared at the Goblin and blinked some more.

"Harry hasn't been out of the house in over a week. This must be a mistake." Replied Sirius angrily.

"Perhaps, perhaps but Gringotts has not had a successful theft in over three centuries." replied the goblin, with a sneer worthy of Snape.

"Harry, you didn't come and empty your vault now did you?" asked Remus in his usual quiet voice.

"No! I haven't been out of the house since Sirius came to get me." Harry explained.

"Very well." sighed the goblin. "I gather you would like to contest these transactions?"

Harry nodded furiously. The money itself wasn't really the problem it was that, yet again, someone had robbed him of something his parents had left him.

"Back in the cart then, I will take you to your account manager." the Goblin explained in a defeated voice, herding the three wizards back to the cart.

The ride back to the main hall was done in silence and a short moment later, Harry, Remus and Sirius were seated inside Griffhacks office, waiting for the account manager's arrival.

"So Harry." Sirius began after a few moments of silence. "You're one-hundred percent sure you didn't empty out your account?"

"I haven't left the house since I got there except to go to the park with you guys and Tonks."

"Right … right." Sirius replied nervously.

They sat in silence for a time, Remus looking pensive while Sirius fidgeted nervously.

"It's just that if you did, the Goblins will find out and well things can get a bit messy from there." Sirius suddenly explained, in a rush.

"I. Didn't …"

"Right … right" interrupted Sirius placatingly.

The door to Griffhack's office finally opened to allow the account manager to enter,

"I am sorry to have made you fine wizards wait but when I heard of the challenge on the transactions, I went and verified the paperwork straight away. Unfortunately for you Mr. Potter, the paperwork appears to be in order." The goblin explained as he took his seat behind his desk.

"If you were any other wizard, we would fine you for making a false claim and send you on your way but as we have had favorable dealings to date, I am willing to listen to your complaint." the goblin continued, preventing Harry from arguing about the fairness, or lack thereof, of the process.

"The most expedient way for us to determine if you, or an agent of yours, did in fact empty your vault would be by use of Veritas Serum. Mr. Black, would you allow the questioning?"

Sirius turned to Harry for confirmation and Harry gave him a nod.

"Right, sure." Sirius replied, sounding a little unsure.

"Good, if you could administer three drops to Mr. Potter, we can begin."

Remus took a small vial from the goblin and approached Harry.

"Alright cub, just stick out your tongue and I'll drop three drops. You'll feel kind of strange, don't fight the feeling and just go with it."

Harry felt three drops hit his tongue and he swallowed reflexively. Short seconds later, Harry found himself within the familiar confines of his mind but not within his protective walls. A dense fog filled Harry's mental landscape and Harry found it difficult to do much of anything.

"WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

Harry's mental avatar jumped in surprise at the loud and commanding voice, looking about for the source of the voice. Finding nothing Harry decided to answer the question.

"Harry James Potter."

"WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU HAVE WITHDRAWN FUNDS FROM YOUR TRUST ACCOUNT?" the voice demanded.

Harry walked about, trying to find the source of the voice while trying to recall the answer to the question.

"Sometime last summer." Harry replied, unable to remember the exact date.

"WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU ALLOWED ONE OF YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TO WITHDRAW FUNDS FROM YOUR ACCOUNT." The voice demanded after an indeterminate amount of time.

"I've never allowed anyone to withdraw funds from my trust account." Harry replied quickly.

The voice remained silent for a moment.

"HAVE YOU IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM, PLANNED TO DEFRAUD GRINGOTS?" the Voice of God, as Harry had decided to call it, demanded.

"No, never. This isn't even about the money; it's the principle of the thing." Harry replied.

After a time, Harry felt the fog lift and his senses return to the real world.

"Well Mr. Potter, you at least appear to be innocent of fraud." the Goblin stated looking very disturbed. "Would you by any chance have insights into this situation?"

"Well Draco Malfoy used Polyjuice to steal stuff from my room once." Harry ventured.

"That is not impossible but Polyjuice does not store well, it would last a month at the most." the Goblin offered.

They sat there in silence, not daring to interrupt the goblins train of thought.

"Who has had access to Mr. Potter over the last month?" asked the Goblin.

"Harry just came back from school so pretty much anyone." replied Sirius.

"But this person would also have had access to Mr. Potters key and since he is currently in possession of his key, it would have had to be someone who currently has access to him. Perhaps your home has been broken into?" the Goblin offered.

"Our home is under Fidelius. Only Sirius, Harry, Dumbledore, Nymphadora Tonks and I have access to the house." explained Remus.

"I doubt Albus Dumbledore would have staged a theft of young Mr. Potters accounts as he was Mr. Potter special guardian for the past twelve years and had full, un-restricted access to the vault and never once made a withdrawal when it would have been perfectly legal for him to do so." the Goblin pondered out loud.

"There's also Kreature and Dobby. But I trust Dobby with my life." Harry added.

"What of this Kreature character and why were neither of these people mentioned?" Griffhack asked angrily.

"They're both House-Elves, both are a bit insane. One hates us all while the other is completely devoted to Harry, defied his original family to try to save Harry from the Basilisk." Sirius explained, hoping to placate the angry goblin.

Griffhack calmed down considerably.

"What of this Nymphadora Tonks?"

"Auror Trainee, my cousin from the branch of the family that got disowned when her mother, Andromeda Tonks, married a muggleborn, Theodore Tonks. I'm planning on bringing them back into the Black family while I kick out a few less desirable members like Belatrix Black-Lestrange and Narcissa Black-Malfoy." Sirius explained.

"I will need to interview both you and Mr. Lupin under Veritas and later, Ms. Tonks as well. We can forgo the questioning of Albus Dumbledore." The Goblin explained, handing the bottle of Veritas back to Remus.

Remus gave Sirius three drops and Harry noticed that his godfather's eyes suddenly became unfocused and his face loosened into a neutral expression.

"What is your name?" Griffhack asked in a normal yet commanding voice that resembled the VoG in no way, shape or form.

"Sirius Orion Black."

"Have you withdrawn any funds from Harry James Potter's trust account here at Gringotts?"

"No." was Sirrius's simple reply.

"What about the money you gave me after I was robbed at Hogwarts?" Harry asked him.

"I gave you that from my funds." came the monotone reply.

"Have you in any way, shape or form, planned to defraud Gringots?"

"Yes." was Sirius's reply.

Harry quickly turned to stare at his Godfather while Remus simply buried his head in his hands and groaned. "Not this again."

"When have you made these plans, for what purpose and have they been acted upon." Griffhack demanded as he angrily stood on his chair.

"The first time was in first year. James and me were bored in history of magic class. I'd just received a howler during lunch from my mother berating me for being sorted in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. Bella had mailed my mother right after the sorting to tell on me so James and I worked out a plan to rob my parent's vaults in revenge. We never did it obviously, we were bored and I was angry."

"Their plan involved James's invisibility cloak, brooms and pretty much everything from Jangle and Japes. It would never have worked." Remus informed the other two.

"Planning this became a bit of a game for James and me and we'd refine our plan over the years. I submitted a cleaned up copy of this as my infiltration thesis for my Auror training." Sirirus continued in his monotone voice.

They waited a short time for the Veritas Serum to lose its hold on Sirius and then Remus was questions and his answers were less eventful than Sirius's.

"Well it would appear that none of you are responsible for the theft, I will proceed with your re-imbursement. If Miss. Tonks is responsible for the theft, Gringotts will find retribution there." Griffhack explained, seeming rather resigned.

"Thank you sir, if you do find out who stole from me, would it be possible for you to let me know?"

"Gladly Mr. Potter, we pride ourselves on insuring the safety of our client's accounts and we will do everything in our power to insure that your faith in our services is restored." the Goblin explained, looking both tired and angry.

"Please accept this small bag of Galleons so as to tide you over while your accounts are remedied." Griffhack told Harry as he deposited a large sack of coins on his desk.

The trio took their leave from Gringotts. Remus and Sirius appeared very relieved and Silias was also.

'You are one for strange situations Mr. Potter.'

"Why does stuff like this happen to me? First wizard to survive the killing curse, youngest Seeker in a century, Parselmouth, I kill off that thing in the secret place, I get kidnapped by a possessed professor, I'm the first person to be robed at Gringots in a couple of centuries …" Harry lamented quietly.

Sirius, having apparently heard Harry's mumblings to Silias, patted him comfortingly on the shoulder.

"Being normal's overrated. Just look at me and Andromeda; the only two Blacks to reject the family heritage and traditions. The Black's didn't always end up in Slytherin, a few of them went to Ravenclaw but I was the first Lion in that Snakes den and then you have Andromeda, ignoring marriage contracts and pureblood tradition by getting hitched to a muggleborn." Sirius explained consolingly.

"But you made those choices, I didn't! Things just keep happening to me." Harry explained, his voice getting harder as his anger grew.

Sirius remained silent, not really knowing what to answer to that statement. Remus was the one to take over.

"I haven't really had a normal life either Harry, my condition has made it impossible. I was very lucky to be able to attend Hogwarts, all other werewolves have had to be home schooled and that was before the laws restricting magical creatures from obtaining wands. Thankfully, I graduated from Hogwarts before that horrid woman Umbridge made her way to the ministry and put in place all these laws to restrict the right of werewolves and other 'creatures'."

"And you can't exactly say that Tonks is exactly normal, I mean Metamorphs are quite rare." Sirius added in the end.

They walked quietly down the alley, not really seeing any of it until they found themselves in front of Jangle and Japes.

"Well, let's get some shopping done then." Sirius exclaimed, apparently breaking himself out of his morose mood.

Harry found himself propelled into the joke shop. The moment they passed the threshold, both Sirus and Remus appeared to shed the years of pain and suffering between the time they had left Hogwarts and now. Sirius gave Remus a quick look and made a mad dash to the back of the shop while Remus went the opposite direction with more decorum.

Harry recognized many items from things the twins used at Hogwarts but never having visited the store himself, he was rather curious. The store was filled with prank items; dung bombs, wet start fireworks, quill's that would cause anything written to sporadically turn invisible, Fanged Frisbees. Among the more destructive items were also some items that were a bit tamer; Animated temporary tattoos, animated fake insects and animals; gum that turned your teeth different colors for a short time.

Harry picked up a few fake spiders, and some gum, thinking they would make a good joke to play on Hermione and Ron respectively.

His items selected, Harry looked around for his godfather and Remus. Both were still shopping. Remus was being very selective in his purchases while Sirius simply grabbed anything that seemed to catch his attention. Harry laughed, seeing both adults surreptitiously try to see what the other was purchasing.

Harry made his way to the counter to pay, waiting for a boy his age to finish purchasing a small number of items. Harry noticed a few fireworks, a tube of some type of glue, a horn that would spray out confetti whenever it was blown and a small stack of howler paper.

Harry admired the ingenuity of the wizards that came up with these ideas and wondered what else wizards could do if they could look beyond their world and took a look at the muggle world.

The boy ahead of Harry finished paying and made his way out the door. Harry approached the counter.

"Is there anything wrong sir?" the man behind the counter asked Harry, a puzzled look on his face.

"No, I'd just like to buy these now." Harry explained, placing his selection unto the counter.

The man looked at him strangely but added up his bill and quickly took his money.

Harry then went to sit on a small bench in front of the store while the 'adults' finished making their purchases.


End file.
